Not long after, the large ship docked. Inside the ship's hold, the slavers responsible for guarding the orphans kept sending them out. Soon it was Kakashi's turn.
A slaver walked up to him and the group of orphans roughly his age, who had already been brought out and burned into line, and shouted, "Behave yourselves, line up properly, and get off the ship one by one."
Because anyone who disobeyed on the ship would face brutal punishment, the group had long since learned the rules of survival. They lined up obediently according to the slaver's instructions, one by one, walked out of the hold, onto the deck, and then down to the ground.
Kakashi followed the main group and set foot on the soil of the Land of Water.
From there, his plan was to find an opportunity to leave, approach the Hidden Mist Village, and activate Konoha's spy embedded within the village.
Indeed, Konoha did have a spy in the Hidden Mist Village. This was the work of the former Root leader, Shimura Danzo.
Danzo had not been without contribution to Konoha.
However, this spy had been hidden extremely well, lying dormant for decades. Root would not activate him unless absolutely necessary.
It was only after Danzo's death and the Third Hokage Hiruzen took over Root that the person was unearthed from the confidential files. The relevant contact information was passed to Kakashi before he carried out his mission.
Whether this spy still maintained loyalty to Konoha, and whether he needed to be activated, was left to Kakashi's judgment.
Kakashi's thought was that, although there was some risk, the person was still a talent from Root and therefore held a certain degree of credibility.
To quickly understand the situation in the Hidden Mist Village, it was worth activating him.
But Kakashi's plan was destined to fail.
As soon as he set foot on the Land of Water, blending safely with the crowd, he immediately felt a unique scrutinizing gaze.
Without showing any expression, his eyes swept across and caught sight of a young kunoichi with brown hair, arms crossed, staring directly at him.
It was an acquaintance, Kakashi recognized her. He had sparred with her during the Chunin Exams and heard her mentioned by Obito. She was the future Fifth Mizukage, Mei Terumi.
Kakashi's heart skipped a beat. His transformation technique was highly advanced, enough to easily hide from ordinary ninja. But could he really hide from a genius ninja like Mei Terumi?
Judging by Mei Terumi's actions, it was clear he had not hidden himself. His identity had been exposed.
Kakashi could not help but heighten his vigilance and prepared himself for combat.
However, although Mei Terumi had discovered him, she made no move to attack, only observing him continuously.
Kakashi didn't know what Mei Terumi intended, but until his identity was completely revealed, he would remain restrained.
———
On the other side, Mei Terumi had noticed that a ninja had infiltrated this slave transport ship. She felt a certain curiosity about this.
Because she had been paying attention to the boy, let's temporarily assume it was a boy, she noted he possessed extremely high-level transformation skills.
Had she not noticed a slight anomaly and then heightened her perception to investigate, she might have missed it altogether.
From the chakra distribution around the boy, he had only changed his facial features, not his height.
In other words, he was either a dwarf or roughly the same size as his transformed appearance.
If it was the latter, someone so small yet capable of such advanced transformation.
There were not many like him in the entire ninja world. Therefore, Mei Terumi did not plan to expose his identity immediately.
First, he might be the same type of ninja as her, a genius from a particular village.
The strength of such a person could not be measured normally. She could not guarantee that exposing him would allow her to subdue him quickly.
If she failed, it could turn into a protracted battle, potentially forcing her to use her most powerful jutsu.
With her jutsu scale, he might evade, but the rest certainly could not.
If large-scale casualties occurred, her protective mission would fail.
Second, the group hiring her had only offered a small amount of money.
Issuing a B-rank mission with the lowest reward, far less than multiple C-rank missions, yet using their influence with the village to compel someone of her caliber, technically not yet an Anbu but functionally with Anbu-level skills, to take action?
Clearly, hiring her was extremely calculated. They wanted every penny to be maximized.
Mei Terumi disliked this approach, so she chose to slack off.
She would never voluntarily take on what could be a top A-rank mission for the equivalent of a C-rank reward.
In her view, any ninja who did that must have a screw loose. If her future husband were such a person, she would refuse to marry him, unless… he was extremely handsome.
Of course, another factor was that the mission had been assigned by the Third Mizukage. Being from the Gokami lineage, she had long been dissatisfied with his blood mist strategies and would never obediently act as his dog.
However, although she was disloyal to the Third Mizukage, she remained loyal to the village. She could not allow this infiltrating ninja to harm the Hidden Mist Village.
She would observe him, constantly observing…
At this moment, she saw Kakashi board one of several slave transport carts with a group of orphans roughly his age.
There were quite a few of these carts, carrying all the slaves off the ship.
As the carts were about to depart, Mei Terumi lazily approached the person in charge, "The overall handover went without incident. My mission is complete. What happens next is no longer my concern, so I'm leaving."
The thirty-something person in charge had just been promoted and was deeply loyal to his superior. He said, "Can't you supervise a little longer? It wouldn't take much extra time anyway."
Mei Terumi rolled her eyes and finally gave a dangerously charming smile, "Well, I could… but you'll have to pay extra."
"If the lord behind you is willing to give me one million ryo, I'll take action."
The man felt a surge of baseless anger, thinking this was just an excuse for Mei Terumi to refuse him. He could not help but feel disgusted, "A tool, yet bargaining with Lord Ken? Does she think ninjas are so amazing? I'll tell you, when I have money, you'll have to obediently be my dog!"
Mei Terumi snorted. Because of the blood mist strategy, most Hidden Mist ninja had become cold tools that only executed missions, looked down on by many high-ranking figures in the Land of Water.
Even famous Anbu like the Seven Ninja Swordsmen could be summoned by powerful figures.
But… she was not that kind of person.
She exuded a strong killing intent and looked at the person in charge. Her smile turned dangerous.
"Do you know what I did on the day of the graduation exam? Although it wasn't as extreme as Ishin, do you want to taste the slowly corroding effect of acidic mist?"
The man trembled all over, frightened out of his mind, some unknown liquid leaking from his lower body.
Mei Terumi turned and left without looking at him again, disappearing instantly.
The man, humiliated by the scene, clenched his fists, "Just wait. Once I gain Lord Ken's recognition and advance further, I will make you pay for your actions that day."
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